Notes / Commercial Description:
"Taste fresh-from-the-field flavors with this handmade, homegrown, and completely natural ale. Made with organic wet hops and barley grown at our brewery in Chico, this remarkable ale is the only one of its kind."

If my neighbor made this I'd nicely tell him it's good. Unfortunately Sierra Nevada made it, and it's not so good. Overly malty and very muddled, competing flavors. Snobs would describe it as nuanced. I'd say it's mediocre and unbalanced.

Thanks to MasterSki aka Alex for bringing this by. Nice green wax on the bottle, didn't know SN did this.

A - An amber colored beer with a nice head that left some spots and chunk on the side and had nice drag throught the consumption of this beer.

S - Slight smell of ammonia, as well as some sort of weak dish soap, kind of reminds me of the ginger they give you with sushi. Pine hops, not particularly resiny, and a bready backbone, but it all smells a little weak.

T - Don't like this. Some sort of hops and the usual weak organic flavoring that may taste natural but doesn't take good. I feel this might be mislabeled as an IPA, reminds me of some sort of organic rice lager or something, if that exists.

M - A lower carbonation beer for something this light, although that's not horrible.

D - Not like I couldn't drink it, but I didn't really want to so after about three quarters of my glass I let the drain finish this off. It's a drinkable beer, but if I'm going to drink I'd rather put something down with better taste. The highlight of this beer for me was the nice looking wax, and I couldn't help lamenting after the fact that this bottle was a waste of good wax.

Bottle into my Narke, provided by Alex...Pours a clear and bright, but super dark copper. Watery and whispy off white head, retention is poor, ok lacing...The aroma is terrible, all throw up on the front, rice and wood. I don't even want to drink to try it...The taste thankfully isn't as bad, light dry hops, alcohol but a light sweet finish. You can tell this is organic, not a good way. A beer worth skipping. The aroma makes it super tough to drink, if it wasn't as strong I could probably drink more of this.

Poured from a green wax adorned (which, by the way, I spent a tortuous amount of time trying to remove) 25.4oz bottle into a Dogfish Head shaped pint glass. Beer emerges clear and an amber golden color with a slightly ecru colored head of about two fingers in size.

Aroma is not as hoppy as I would have thought. I would think that the fresh hops would give a nice, hop aroma, but this one slightly disappoints. Musty and earthy hop aroma with a bit of burnt rubber.

Flavor is okay. More earthy, spicy hops in the flavor with a good malt backbone. A touch of caramel and a slight nuttiness. Hops bitterness kicks in toward the back end. Tastes kind of like sucking on a sock full of hops, grass, and Corona.

All in all, I was disappointed with this one. The idea of fresh hopped ale is tantalizing, but I have found only two or three examples of such that are delicious or offer something different than a typical, "dry hops" hopped beer. Decent mouthfeel with a nice bitterness; carbonation is spot-on. Only paid $10 for this, which is about $2 too much, if you ask me. I would choose Sierra Nevada Pale Ale over this any day.

A - Two fingers of off-white foam that settle to a thin cap and thick collar, leaving behind spotty lace. Transparent coppery body.

S - Extremely catty and earthy hops, with a bit of pine and soap mixed in there as well. Whatever they are growing on their estate, they aren't the hops I like. The malt character is mostly biscuit and also has notes of wild rice. Not pleasant in my book.

T - Taste is bready malt and nondescript hop bitterness in the finish. Would probably impress me more if it was called an American Pale Ale.

D - I finished my glass, but I think about a third of the bomber ended up going down the drain as no one wanted seconds. If you're into the type of hop profile I described, you'll probably dig this, but I'm with Overlord on this one and want more citrus character. I guess that's the gamble with growing your own hops - if they don't turn out like you planned you still have to make a beer with them.